Randolph
Douglas - Randini

Randolph Douglas, a former steelworker, locksmith,
caver, collector of ephemera, miniaturist, curator, magician and
escapologist, who died in 1956.

Born in 1895 and growing up in Endcliffe, Sheffield, Douglas,
the son of silversmith, worked for years at Hadfields steelworks
before joining the Army and going to war in 1916. In the
intervening years, the young boy became fixated by the
vaudeville-style magic acts, illusionists and escapologists that
were so much part of the entertainment of the day.

Lindley saw a photo of Douglas with the legendary Hungarian
emigré Harry Houdini, whose feats of escapology made him one of
the most famous men on the planet. There were also letters and
postcards to Randolph from Houdini, which made it clear that
they were had become friends.

It seemed that young
Randoph had showbusiness aspirations of his own, calling himself
"Randini", and working on his own acts of amazing escapes in his
attic bedroom.

"I felt moved to go back and look again, "
says John Lindley, who was Cheshire's Poet Laureate in 2004, and
has published several well-received collections of work. "I
wanted to know more about Randoph Douglas's life and his
relationship with this star."

Further research revealed
that Douglas had possibly first seen Houdini's act at Sheffield
Empire when he was only eight years old, and saw the star again
and again when he came to England over subsequent years.

A newly published American biography of Houdini is thought to be
the first to mention that, after a show in Nottingham, the star
went out of his way to drive up to Sheffield to visit Randolph
Douglas, and that the two men discussed different kind of locks
– he was apparently an expert locksmith, although only in his
teens. Houdini was shown up to the attic to see
work-in-progress.

There, with the help of Douglas's
stepmother, Houdini helped to truss the young man in a
straitjacket, chains and padlock, then suspend him upside down
from a frame so that he could show off his latest.

"At
the time Houdini had not performed such a feat, and it's fairly
certain that he did get tips from Douglas on how to do it before
he introduced it into his act," says John Lindley."It's clear
from the correspondence kept among Douglas's belongs at Buxton
Museum that the relationship between the two was more than
simply that of superstar and fawning fan. Houdini mentions
details of particular tricks, and at one point he asks Douglas
to send him some knives.

But Randolph Douglas's
connection to Houdini and influence on his act have never
received recognition, says Lindley.

After Douglas went to
war the two did not meet again, and Houdini died in 1926, when a
student took him by surprise and repeatedly punched him in the
abdomen, following the showman's claim that he could withstand
any punch.

"Douglas did perform his own 'Randini the
Self-Liberator' act two or three times in workingmen's clubs in
Sheffield, but when he was later invalided out of the war with a
heart condition, he was no longer strong enough to perform
escapology. That part of his life was over.

"He went back
to Hadfields, married, and later they moved to Castleton and
opened their home as the House of Wonders museum, full of the
amazing things he collected such as African weapons, and his own
miniatures – everything from a tiny greenhouse, with 42 plants
inside, to a thread with the Lord's Prayer printed on it."